Masterminds
by BitterSweetTeller
Summary: Dreams transform into a prelude to reality when alliances beyond matter come into play. Direct prequel to Instincts, rated K plus for supernatural action and suggestive themes.
1. Part 1: Shadows of the Deep

**Masterminds: A Waverly Place Fanfic**

**Part 1:**

Crucial FYI: If you haven't read my fanfic Instincts, please read it first. This direct sequel would have spoilers and probably be very hard to follow otherwise. It'll all fit into place this way. If you have read Instincts and are prepared, make yourself comfortable and get ready for the next level.

Relatively to the present, around a week earlier…

The remaining agent of living metal called out, "no! Listen to…" It never got to finish the thought as a second random lightning bolt pierced its wires. To Alex's escalating sadness, the mechanized being's vents overloaded to the point of inner combustion. It fell defeated and inactive to the hardness of the steps. Alex desperately covered her ears as the biggest rumble she ever heard echoed in this well of hollow efforts. The extinct monstrosity tumbled to the sixth floor. Alex's wand fell to the platform under her feet. Alex ignored her tears.

She muttered, "the cycle of darkness will end…now and forever more." Alex picked up the wand. She cast out another path with a way, "Cerebellum Eraslum!" Alex dropped the wand, clutching the manifesting ache in her head. She fell to the platform, joining her brothers in subconscious.

An hour later…

"Where…where am I?" A confused Alex Russo begun to get up with a groan, on the middle of an x shaped set of steps sloping downward. Around the ground steps were an entwined structure of vines shaped in the form of archways…one for each set to be more precise. At least, the ice like surface at their bases looked solid enough to be ground. Over Alex's head was what seemed to be in her growing awe shifting old fashioned medieval towers, making up most of the surrounding atmosphere without lack of oxygen or conflict with the scene. She deduced with a chuckle, "I must be dreaming….although I never put anything like this in my diary." Alex corrected herself a little uneasily, "at least I think I do." A near deafening sound of breaking glass resounded abruptly to the underhanded reactionary protection of her eardrums. She noticed in deeper vision the towers bombing down on the splitting ice ground, followed by huge geysers sprouting from the stretching holes. Alex remarked, "someone must've known I was coming." She instinctively walked down the only garden path beyond a particular arch, even before the tower like missiles begun.

A hauntingly familiar voice replied coldly, "is that any way to greet someone who knows you too well?" Alex turned around on impulse to see Gigi Hollingsworth, forming from the reforming tidal wave around the arch.

Alex pointed out with a half smile, "you sure have a sense of familiarity about you." The rest of the water rush seemed to just pass on by, as if the 2 teenagers were encased in a bubble of air.

Gigi chuckled uneasily…"and yet the name Gigi doesn't strike a chord?" The thinning wall of water transformed the garden into an urban styled aquarium.

Alex commented with a spirited sigh, "to be honest, I'm not sure what's truly in accordance."

Gigi laughed cruelly…"you really have your cloth coming unraveled, don't you?"

Alex retorted to her surprise, "a tapestry is only as good as the weaver, and a weaver can make any as good as new…but often not without a story to tell." Gigi suddenly shifted into a more persuasive and manipulative mood, along with the chilling change of scenery. The former aquarium was now a maze of ice blocks freakishly in the shape of bricks, with a small round table to match the material. Gigi and Alex begun to sit on opposite sides of this furniture…more specifically on leather cushions resembling the tops of saddles.

Gigi soothingly continued, "I could volunteer one you'd be quite pleased with."

Alex insisted, "please do."

Gigi put a hand on one of hers…"perhaps I have underestimated you, my sister."

Alex smiled slyly, retracting her hand…"why do I get the feeling that I shouldn't trust you?"

Gigi implied cunningly, "isn't that the fun in schemes…recreational rivalry?"

Alex challenged daringly, "but how would proposing a story lead to a successful scheme if I then already know where the scheme will end up?"

Gigi chuckled in rebuttal…"not if the two of us team up for this round."

Alex added inquisitively, "and the objective?"

Gigi answered to her amazement, "bringing civilization the full meaning of enjoyment."

Alex deduced coolly, "then you must have an awaiting side of your own."

Gigi replied, "I do, and they're interested in you too if you want to join."

Alex pushed, "first, explain they."

Gigi revealed nervously, "all I know is that these powerful beings call themselves the Identity and can shift through dreams."

Alex assumed, "so, we're stuck in dreams?"

Gigi nodded…"according to the Identity, there are very few like themselves who have retained their full identities and mobility."

Alex pointed out, "so, it's not just me…Alex?"

Gigi remarked cheerfully in agreement, "good thing our personalities and representative names stuck, or we'd be truly lost from unconsciousness."

Alex drummed her fingers on the table delicately in thought…"right before I form a conclusion, what would bringing the full meaning of joy entail?"

Gigi deduced confidently, "simply an overlapping balance of tricks and counteractive tricks in replacement of civil justice."

Alex commented approvingly, "in essence, crime blended equally with law. This is a legendary undertaking." She put her fingers away from view.

Gigi grinned…"I take it your answer is just as thought out?"

Alex assured her, "I'd be proud to join the cause." She offered her hand to Gigi, who shook it positively.

Gigi assured her back, "you won't regret it."

Alex wondered in partial alarm, "hold on…what was that?" The 2 glanced around to see the ice start melting to the cycling flames and steam around them. A miscellaneous pair of shadows shone from the other side of the fire, charging towards them with quarterstaffs.

Gigi realized in shock, "those aren't the Identity!"

Alex cried out, "run!" The 2 unorthodox friends sprinted towards the edge of a vaporizing glacier, the stalkers giving chase. Gigi and Alex split off onto neighboring afloat glaciers. The attackers leaped next to them, landing on an ice sheet in the middle. Their figures were masked by the ongoing flames among the glaciers themselves. Gigi shifted nervously away from the rising flames, crawling below the smoke. Alex kicked off the back of her aflame iceberg, gaining speed on the melting stream. One fighter struck a quarterstaff against the center glacier, using it as direct leverage to edge the glacier closer.

A vaguely familiar voice called out, "get down!" The middle glacier ended up cracking to the point of exploding from the apparent flames, propelling the tumbling fighters closer to their targets.

Gigi called out in fear, "Alex!" Gigi was on a barely existent glacier, with a mounting tidal wave charging too fast to jump away from. Alex passed from drifting ice block to ice block as if they were mere stepping stones, running straight for the tide.

Alex called back, "Gigi!" She tumbled onto an ice disk, grabbing on tight as it got caught up in the wave. Alex instinctively lowered her soaked feet to grips with Gigi's underarms, launching her onto a distant snowbank to safety. Alex suddenly lost her grip, sinking into the water as a fighter nearly missed her with a quarterstaff. The fighter slipped on the ice disk, vanishing in a big splash. Alex's body was rammed out of the wave, landing in spiraling unconsciousness on a newly formed glacier piece. The second but blurred fighter was about to swoop its hand at Alex's neck, when Alex with her last ounce of strength tugged this hand over the glacier's edge. She coughed out water, shortly before lying head up against the glacier in unconsciousness. What Alex faintly saw through the coughs was a second blurred figure, looking down at her as if she already lost this war of thought.


	2. Part 2: Thoughtful Terms

**Masterminds: A Waverly Place Fanfic**

**Part 2:**

Approximately 50 minutes after the mental bang(originating at Variety Court, physical nighttime)…

"What…what's going on?" Justin Russo rubbed his eyes instinctively, making sure there was nothing in them. He gasped in shocking disbelief at the scene he found himself in. Justin found himself looking at the random darkness and glares of space itself, the contrasts seeming to cancel each other out in matters of perception. Justin exclaimed, "how can this be? There's not supposed to be oxygen here!" He took a sniff of the area to check. Justin realized, "and yet there is. Maybe this is all in my head." He then noticed something even stranger. Justin deduced in mixed beliefs, "in that case then…what's an arcade console doing in the middle of nowhere?" Indeed there was, but ironically in white coloring with black controls and a smoke colored screen. It was also the only physical object in Justin's proximity…and no random floating either. Justin reasoned with sighing reluctance, "this may not be real at all, but the only memory if memory at all that I have now is the name Justin and this device may be the answer." He went on to assure himself of his conclusion, "in fact, it seems most likely that I suffered some kind of concussion since I must be at least multiple years old with no recollections. Therefore, exploring within dreams is a way to pick up the pieces because of how much they draw on experiences and desires from within." Justin glanced at the buttons and double set of mini-joysticks, yet there were puzzlingly only 5 buttons with the labels O, A, R, N, and Y. Around one joystick was the letters A-M in a ring, and the other consisting of N-Z, yet no on/off switch. Justin deduced in confusion, "it must be really split…for this symbol to represent so many questions and answers." He glanced around the surroundings for some hint of what to do…"darn it! Guess we're back to the beginning." Justin paused with slight attitude alteration, "or…are we?" He cautiously pressed the N button. The screen to Justin's relief came online.

A computerized voice sounded, "password required." Justin then heard something and turned straight for its direction. He saw in fear a big asteroid, coming at his body a distance away like a boulder tumbling down a hilltop. But, with a comet tail that begun to unnaturally consume the mass.

Justin groaned…"come on! The answer must be in plain sight due to lack of information of oneself." With only one guess that seemed closest to fact, Justin used the joysticks to display his name on the screen.

The screen repeated, "password required." The asteroid was halfway there to Justin's frustration.

Justin figured, "it must have an enter button, or the attempt would be erased by now. Now, which button is it?" He turned his attention back to the buttons nervously…"it can't be the button that turns it on, yet there must be a theme with these buttons for it to be truly logical." Justin already ruled out his own name, because no other button label matches. It was also mixed of consonants and vowels, so no pattern there. Justin assumed, "letters are parts of words, so they must be part of a word or multiple." He tried matching the letters O, A, R, N, and Y together, but no single word came close but yarn. The asteroid's heat was beginning to be felt on Justin's skin, added to his inner heated turmoil of panic. Justin exclaimed in equal reaction, "of course! The only yarn here is strings of space, and the only knot here is the Big Bang itself. This almost total absence of matter merely highlights my missing facts…represented by the simplistic questions of life! Therefore, who, what, where, when, and why are symbolized." His body was feeling inflamed by nearing vaporization as he quickly pressed the O button. To Justin's relief, the arcade console literary shifted him out of range of the asteroid in time. Furthermore, it was transforming into an escape pod before his amazed eyes. The buckled seat branched out from the morphing machine is what carried him to safety as the asteroid unnaturally exploded. The pod was propelled forward by the external acceleration as Justin held onto his armrests in shock. The computer screen had converted into a windshield without wipers and the internal parts had combined into a small rocket engine within this pod. Justin muttered lowly, "now what?" He caught sight of a video game joystick, just in time to steer past a moving asteroid field made up of space fireballs. Justin barely made it through. He concluded with a fulfilled smile, "I'm on my way home." A wormhole had formed around Justin, accelerating the craft into a blur of light. Justin covered his eyes from the bright flash of light.

A more humane voice suggested with an uneasy chuckle, "well, not fully."

Justin asked cautiously, "who are you?"

The voice remarked, "someone who's telling you you can open your eyes now." Justin rubbed his eyes and opened them again. The pod and the light…all gone. In fact, there was only a plane of endless darkness.

Justin inquired, "I don't see you. Where are you?"

The voice insisted, "if I choose to reveal my identity within this disturbing time at a better time, you'll find out."

Justin commented, "then it's not just me trapped in my own body, is it?"

The figure forming its own white outline chuckled in impressive expression…"not exactly the way I'd phrase it, but everyone indeed seems to be stuck in their dreams."

Justin deduced nervously, "then you're not…confined to your brain?"

The figure answered amused, "we're now in it Justin, lying inactive until my soul activates it again."

Justin wondered in growing nervousness, "how is that possible?"

The figure explained vaguely, "few of us have strong enough mental strength to maintain ourselves to a higher degree through whatever keeps us inside our minds."

Justin checked unsure, "couldn't you physically awaken whenever you wanted?"

The figure sadly pointed out, "not even these few could, even if we wanted to."

Justin sighed. He suggested, "then what can we do?"

The figure hinted, "actually, there is a bigger threat from within."

Justin offered worried, "how can I help?"

The figure added in higher spirits, "well, a benefactor group called the Community is forming to counteract an imposing faction called the Identity if you want to contribute to their efforts."

Justin reasoned, "then I want to join."

A smile outlined itself on the figure's face…"you've just met the leader of the Community."

Justin checked in near speechlessness, "then…why…all the mystery…in the first place?"

The figure remarked, "in the realm of minds, anything rarely is predictable."

Justin deduced, "you were testing me, to see if I was Community material."

The figure nodded…"but I had a sense of knowing the answer already, ever since I was the console."

Justin wondered in mixed feeling, "you mean you can…transform?"

The being chuckled…"in this realm, my powers are simply upgraded physicality originating from my already apparent mentality."

Justin concluded in understanding, "so stronger mentality equals stronger dream control because dreams are influenced by thought instead of physique."

The figure replied, "exactly."

Justin inquired, "does that include stronger sense of oneself?"

The figure commented, "good guess. Unfortunately, both the Community and the Identity's main operatives have both qualities. Why else could the Identity be a threat if they couldn't leave their own minds?"

Justin added uneasily, "yeah, I guess that fits. If that's the case, then why are both teams branching out to recruit other individuals?"

The figure pointed out, "even the Identity can't fully manipulate dreams. In fact, neither can I."

Justin argued, "but people with similar abilities can control their own brains."

The figure retorted, "but not other people's brains because they merely anticipate a mind invader's thoughts as a random dream obstacle. Sometimes dreamt obstacles are drawn from our tastes and experiences, and sometimes traces of similar thoughts originated from prior generations enter our thoughts despite no prior knowledge about them."

Justin added, "or even an instinct drawn from familiarity with another."

The figure concluded thoughtfully, "perhaps. The overall idea of recruitment in this case is to strengthen overall dream control for maximum success, for whichever side you're on."

Justin wondered curiously, "then what could contribute to the Community's success chances in my case?"

The figure suggested, "you seem like a good talker. How about active recruiter duty?"

Justin assured the representative with hybrid feeling, "I'd be an honor, but I can't travel from mind to mind."

The figure remarked, "the best thing of being able to fully control your own brain from within is that you can transform your brain into anything you wish…including a material way of mind transportation for yourself."

Justin responded happily, "I'll do my best." The two shook hands in strong accord.


	3. Part 3: Hurricane Ambition

**Masterminds: A Waverly Place Fanfic**

**Part 3:**

Minutes after Alex encountered Gigi…

Alex instinctively lowered her soaked feet to grips with Gigi's underarms, launching her onto a distant snowbank to safety. Alex suddenly lost her grip, sinking into the water as a fighter nearly missed her with a quarterstaff. The fighter slipped on the ice disk, vanishing in a big splash. What Alex didn't notice around the time was a miniature wormhole between the tide and the water front, forming an unorthodox hourglass shaped whirlpool. The figure was slipping on the disk, but in a spiral in accordance to the atmospheric change within the aquatic hourglass. Alex's body was rammed out of the wave, but not by a slip of the staff when the fighter inadvertently slipped on the disk. The wormhole's gravitational effects had the unintentional counter effect of launching Alex out of the morphed wave. The quarterstaff only had the tip near her chest by inches when the swirling wave released her. It wouldn't have even gotten that close without the atmospheric disturbance, which was mere coincidence.

Alex, rammed by the dream distortion, landed in spiraling unconsciousness on a newly formed glacier piece. The second but blurred fighter was about to swoop its hand at Alex's neck, when then distorted Alex with her last ounce of strength tugged this hand over the glacier's edge. She coughed out water, shortly before lying head up against the glacier in unconsciousness. Because of coughing and near unconsciousness, the second wormhole was completely undetected from Alex's perspective. What Alex faintly saw through the coughs was a second blurred figure, completely different from both fighters. A blur, with whatever details it may conceal, is almost indistinguishable with another in perception because of random color. Therefore, Alex naturally perceived this blur as belonging to the same unit of blurred vision that came after her. Instead of a quarterstaff in this blur's hands was a pair of fitted gauntlets, yet not spiked. The whirlpool created by the secondary wormhole slingshot the icy pad into the path of two reappearing figures. Their bodies masked by the remaining steam clouds of hybrid ice and fire gave the appearance of shadow. One figure remarked, "since when do you interfere with our interface with mutual minds?"

A second one counteracted, "actually, we thought we could come to terms with you."

The first figure chuckled…"what could you possibly offer me?"

The third figure checked, "are you not their leader?"

The first figure hinted, "and what would you suggest to him or her?"

The third figure hinted back, "about an alliance."

The first figure deduced in retaliation, "you sure don't sound confident for a talker."

The second figure commented, "conflict is hardly ever desired."

The first figure wondered, "are you sure you didn't come to sign up with me and my team?"

The third figure realized, "you are the Identity's leader."

The first figure nodded…"again, same question."

The second figure pointed out, "whether indeed we came to join the Identity or rejoice in more compact mutualism among groupings, can't we settle this in a more stable area?"

The Identity leader replied, "agreed, on one condition."

The third figure asked uneasily, "what is it?"

The Identity leader answered, "I get to bring this unconscious body with me as a representative."

The third figure inquired, "and the body in the snow?"

The Identity leader chuckled…"she knows how to get around."

The second figure implied, "recruiter?"

The Identity figure had the faint outline of a smile sticking out of its shadow…"even within dreams, you never cease to get me."

The third figure interrupted, "we'll all be gotten by the water if we don't hurry up."

The Identity figure sighed in acknowledgment and opened up a wormhole around the group of bodies. A wave barely missed the vanishing figures on top of a shattered patch of thin ice.

A short enough while after(physically morning after mental bang)…

"Where have you taken us?"

"To the only place no one would dare think to look for."

"I can't even comprehend it to think it." Around the 3 Identity and Community representatives that left Alex's cerebellum was an even more abstract brain. There was a white sky, but with lightning colored clouds without the glow of a sun. The representatives were unnaturally standing on one of these clouds, which were raining bubbles upwards. The Identity individual motioned the other 2 individuals to put a hand on the cloud under their feet. They reluctantly followed the indicator.

The second figure remarked, "do we take out a lightning bolt next?"

The first figure retaliated, "just be patient like a good little raven and we'll be there shortly." All of a sudden, the cloud expanded upward. A blanket of bubbles was compacted around the conscious trio to the point of multiple pops.

The third figure cried out, "shield your eyes!" The trio reflexively put their arms in front of their faces as the water volume equal to a hot air balloon's open space was hurled at them from all directions. As quick as it started, it stopped. The figures uncovered their eyes to see a complete background change, yet just as complex and entertaining as the previous scenery. Multiple shades of blue twirled around each other like outstretched whirlpools in this complex sky, yet its surroundings didn't have a drop of water on them. Then again, neither did the representatives anymore to their inner amazement.

The second figure suspiciously checked, "you sure this isn't a trap?"

The first figure retorted, "doubt is not a luxury here."

The third figure suggested, "what's Maximum Quality?"

The second figure asked back, "huh?" The third figure pointed to a sign forming from swirling water spraying from above, which spelled out Maximum Quality.

The first figure commented, "very good." Max Russo came out to join them, materializing from the compacting sign made from waterworks.

He asked randomly, "you like my brain?"

The first figure insisted, "actually Max, this is more business than pleasure."

Max remarked cheerfully, "hey…my pleasure is your business, and my business is your pleasure."

The third figure wondered, "is Max an Identity member?"

Max replied with a chuckle, "actually, I'm my own neutral party."

The second figure insisted, "explain."

The first figure deduced, "he's a supplier to both the Identity and the Community…for a fee."

The second figure urged, "and what's a supplier got to do with alliance?"

Max threatened, "well, if you anger the supplier that keeps your teams alive, it'll be contradictory to your mental health."

The third figure concluded, "hormone rations?"

The first figure confirmed, "hormone drinks to be exact."

The second figure challenged, "but if someone found out, wouldn't you be out of business?"

Max counteracted, "two different individual distributors, same source…but I can cut off their supply at will if they attack me and strengthen myself with it."

The second figure asked amused, "you can manipulate your dreams at leisure?"

Max responded with equal amusement, "and I neither have the need nor the power to leave my brain."

The third figure commented, "must be a one in a billion case."

The first figure interceded in impatience, "anyway, we came to see about a hormone boost."

Max pointed out, "if you wanted second doses, you could wait in line like everyone else."

The first figure explained further, "not us…the entire dream populace."

The third figure argued, "are you mad? It could overwhelm physical processes in mental collapse from overdose!"

Max added, "not to mention my pleasure profit."

The second figure debated, "shaping dreams can't also apply to compressing hormone volume and nutrition?"

The first figure pressured, "well?"

Max retaliated, "since we're talking about theoretical brain awakening, I'll need a much more personal request physically fulfilled to rebalance the favor."

The second figure resolved, "a draw?"

The third figure suspected, "it's his fulfillment that I'm worried about."

The first figure offered soothingly, "my pleasurable physical company."

The second figure exclaimed, "what?(!)"

Max figured, "hmm…it's a date."

The third figure realized gravely, "we've been played."

The first figure laughed…"What are you complaining about? I bet the distributors aren't taken yet."

The second figure retorted, "or too soon will be."

Max suggested, "and who's to say our mental powers will be physically carried with us?"

The third figure contemplated, "huh…Max has a point. Even if we had powers like these in our bodies as well as in mind, our bodies seem to have taken a serious enough toll that most likely would cancel them out externally."

The second figure argued, "and if our bodies are gone with them?"

The first figure insisted, "then there'd be no dream control if only our minds are intact because it'd need assistance from more voluntary thoughts to carry out the kind of control we have over ourselves now."

The third figure deduced, "but more hormones mean our bodies would keep producing them, even after retaining physique control."

The second figure concluded grimly, "and desires would exceed rationality?"

The first figure devilishly grinned…"I guess it'd be hypocritical to imprison you here in our cause for independence, but I'm afraid you won't live to see the revised order."

Max inputted, "I'm with you on that one."

The first figure suggested, "let's take them." The Community figures drew out their quarterstaffs to barely block the Identity leader's gauntlets. Max stretched out his hands, calling upon the water to become an exoskeleton for him. The third figure wedged his staff under the first figure's arm, swinging towards her head. The second figure used her staff as a pole to propel herself towards the first figure's chest. The first figure raised her shoulders into both Community representatives' necks. The third figure's staff fell to the ground as he joined it in a coughing rage to get air. The second figure's staff went flying as her body hit the transparent floor, gasping for air. Max's personal water body shot up in a powerful leap to lunge at the 2 fallen bodies for a final blow. Forgotten Alex Russo was slowly returning to consciousness, instinctively grabbing the staff on the floor. Suddenly, the flung staff bounced off of the picked up staff. Alex, not yet having full vision, rammed the staff in hand at the heads of the adjacent familiar blurs on the floor.

She exclaimed, "and stay down!" The bounced staff hit Max's body. Max fell to the ground, but undamaged. He impulsively extended his water body like thin tentacles towards the two Community figures, accidentally picking up the staff headed for their heads. Alex kicked the 2 Community representatives away, thinking they were attacking her again. Their breaths were slowly returning due to the side kicks, unknown to anyone else.

The Identity figure called out, "Max, don't! She's one of us." Max got up, noticing Alex struggling to get free from his grasp.

He apologized, "sorry, dear. I just reacted." Max lowered Alex to the floor, back on her feet. The Community figures teleported away with wormholes while this misunderstanding was clearing up.

Alex asked sarcastically, "waterworks here sprung a leak?"

Max remarked, "more like sabotage from a restrictive duo of beings representing the Community."

Alex remarked, "need a repairwoman?"

The first figure slyly smiled…"I'm sure I can provide the address."


	4. Part 4: Enlightening Colors

**Masterminds: A Waverly Place Fanfic**

**Part 4:**

A few hours after the Maximum Quality meeting(2.2 days since mental bang)…

"What…what happened?" A figure got to his feet. He glanced around, expecting some clue. None came out of the cloak of absolute blend of color that is white. Only his short black hair and sturdy features were noticeable. He assured himself that he was Jeffery. Jeffery thought out loud, "I was last at a theater…I think." Suddenly, blurred colored of his skin and hair spread out of him in a confusing blur of chaos. Jeffery tried to run, but the blur was emitting from him. He called out, "whoever you are…get off!" The colors shot forward, carrying Jeffery within towards a prism. He instinctively ran to the left of the prism, losing the prism with relief. Mirrors coming up ahead almost imprisoned Jeffery as he swung off their edges. Jeffery's momentum was carrying him towards another prism above. He deduced, "time to end this."

Jeffery slowed down enough to have enough balance to kick the prism into pieces not a second sooner. The eerie background vanished in an instant. Just as quickly, the scene completely changed. Jeffery was in a ballroom completely made of colored glass mosaics. The floor and ceiling were unnervingly made up of glass. Jeffery remarked, "why do they seem so familiar?" In the mosaics were patterns of what resembled similar pieces of Jeffery's style and deeply rooted interests…but all with decades worth of varied age, gender, and time periods. He noticed something even queerer. There weren't any furniture or doors, yet something seemed to pulse within the glass pillars. Jeffery figured, "it's the best shot I got." He punched the nearest pillar below the encased giant cocoon, letting out a pocket of gases from its side. Jeffery knelt down and tumbled away from the mosaic wall to his right. Strangely, the gases compacted into what seemed to be a crystal ball. It discharged a spread of green lasers that blasted the pillars completely apart. Jeffery covered his ears on the floor to avoid going deaf. Out of the pillars came a swirling rainbow of colors that lit the mosaic room into bright light.

Jeffery shut his eyes against the flare…only to open them with shining glare emitting under his feet. He got up in frustration to see a stranger setting. He called out, "who are you?(!)" The characters from the mural cage were standing next to him in one second. The next, their colors blurred to the point of intermixing. Jeffery was near speechless at seeing a mirror version of himself, created from color fusion. The remaining leftover colors just spun around the 2 as though they were in a blender of paint without meaning or repercussion.

The mirror Jeffery retorted, "what you'll become."

Jeffery commented, "but the only thing I know is the word Jeffery. Is it my name then?"

The second Jeffery chuckled…"you catch on quick."

The first Jeffery inquired, "and what do I reel in?"

Jeffery 2 smiled…"what you want to take with you."

Jeffery 1 voiced a hunch, "a persona?"

Jeffery 2 muttered, "so close."

Jeffery 1 guessed, "personality?" The second Jeffery nodded.

He added, "time for personal evaluation."

The first Jeffery challenged, "if I don't know who I'll be and you're me, how can you know more than myself?"

The second Jeffery smiled in admiration…"technically, we're different and yet the same."

The first Jeffery concluded, "same mind?"

The second Jeffery grinned…"same dream."

Jeffery 1 questioned nervously, "and…you're my conscience?"

The second Jeffery shook his head…"more like a psychic echo of generations of lives."

The first Jeffery assumed, "intense social studies?"

Jeffery 2 chuckled…"close enough."

Jeffery 1 suggested, "then could I be contributory to society?"

The second Jeffery pointed out, "it does have a certain familiarity, but that could just be from a past life."

The first Jeffery remarked, "no time like the present to reboot the past."

Jeffery 2 offered a hand…"good luck." When the 2 touched hands though to shake, the secondary Jeffery transformed into a ball of water. He seemed to vaporize into the primary Jeffery's skin before he could deduce what registered in his near disbelieving senses.

Jeffery smiled in inner acknowledgment. He then saw a green flash go off like a homing beacon. Justin suddenly materialized from the flash before Jeffery's eyes.

Justin greeted, "hello."

Jeffery questioned, "what are you?"

Justin assured, "I'm a human like you…with some mental help."

Jeffery wondered, "are we all caged in our own thoughts?"

Justin figured, "that's one way to put it."

Jeffery offered, "how about we unlock the barrier to reality?"

Justin insisted slightly amused, "one step at a time, umm..."

Jeffery filled in the blank, "Jeffery."

The recruiter responded, "I'm Justin, a member of the Community."

Jeffery checked in confusion, "you sure there's only one?"

Justin begun retaliating, "in here, desires sprout stronger drive to the point of abusive addiction in most people…"

Jeffery finished, "and so few goals or cultures in between."

Justin replied, "indeed, and that's why the Community needs all the help they can get with a terroristic alliance called the Identity."

Jeffery assured, "you have my full support."

Justin mysteriously deduced, "more than you know." Another green flash formed under their feet, taking the hopefuls beyond Jeffery's restrictive body and towards their next destination.


	5. Part 5: Cloaked Foreshadows

**Masterminds: A Waverly Place Fanfic**

**Part 5:**

About 52 physical hours since the mental bang(3 hours in mind time)…

Jeffery thought out loud, "I was last at a theater…I think." Suddenly, blurred colored of his skin and hair spread out of him in a confusing blur of chaos. Jeffery tried to run, but the blur was emitting from him. He called out, "whoever you are…get off!" The colors shot forward, carrying Jeffery within towards a prism. The colors weren't just scenery, but mind obstacles formed from enough wormhole transport to disrupt the waves of light that make up the unified color of white in a void with no previous meaning of gravity. Countless figures were lost in visibility by the temperamental shades of color, fighting with familiar quarterstaffs and gauntlets across the forming mind spectrum. Cries echoed in a spectrum that only the criers could hear in the chaos of battle:

"For the Community!"

"Bring back their Identity!"

"Preserve yourselves!"

"For freedom!" Some very familiar faces were engaged in facing adversaries, yet not exactly familiar to themselves. Justin had teleported to this brain in hopes of recruiting another hopeful Community member, but that was during the formation of the colorful hazards. He tumbled out of range of a spinning kick that knocked a completely motionless figure out of perception, blurred out of sight.

Justin exclaimed, "what the…?(!)" He got up to see Alex glaring straight at him while swinging her elbow into another Community member. She was wearing leather padding straps chained to small metal plates that made up movable nanoshields across her joints.

Alex shot back, "what does it look like?(!)"

Justin replied grimly, "I don't want to hurt you, but I have to think of the Community."

Alex just chuckled cruelly. She challenged, "with no weapon but your word, recruiter?"

Justin retorted, "when a dream has enough desires to exceed its original desire, thought is all we'll need."

Alex replied, "agreed, provided I raise the stakes." The colors around Alex and Justin begun to spiral around them, shifting into a more solid dimension of its own.

Justin reluctantly asked, "and what would these stakes take if I lose?"

Alex coolly answered, "civilization's split of order and chaos…forever." Justin nearly broke out in shivers at the piercing phrase.

He wondered, "and what gives you that right?"

Alex commented, "being the honorary members representative of the parallel lines along the road gives us the right to guide them to our final destination."

Justin concluded, "you will the unidentified leaders of the Identity to come, and so I must follow a related course to lay out the pavement."

Alex smiled bittersweetly…"may the firmest intent win." A prism solidified out of the rivals' united emotions of tension and insight towards their close and yet distant intents. This is where the match that would give the symbolic figures enlightenment would ignite, whether Justin or Alex won for their warring alliances. The colors shot forward in response to the directors directing their forces telepathically to watch the fated point within the arena. Even the disrupted spectrum has cowered before the disruption of the mind invaders. Now only a victory within the souls of Identity and Community could determine their own fate. Jeffery within the whirlpool of color was circling towards the prism, but he perceived it as moving straight for this pocket dimension. He instinctively ran to the left of the prism, losing the prism with relief. That is, until the spirals formed from the sentient audience expectantly gathered around the inevitable spectacle circled around again. Apparently, dream figures were still trying to find their seats and creating narrow paths for Jeffery to follow in the blurred crowd. Jeffery just saw these onlookers as clouds keen on swallowing him up due to their blended rush to find good views and so treated the seemingly transparent blobs as such obstacles.

He gasped in breath and alarm as blobs of figures with more layers of visibility than ever expected charged past the crowded blurs and towards his path. These blobs with the appearance of reflective mirrors coming up ahead almost imprisoned Jeffery as he swung off their edges. Strangely, the figures within the mirror blobs paid him no attention and maintained their course towards the prism as if nothing else mattered or gave them anything that matters.

Among the crowd of still watchers were fading figures, gasping for air. The collective of passive onlookers were just starting to take their seats, not even sensing the dream bodies that begun to thin out of existence in the path of the mirror blobs. The sounds of the disappearing act were masked by the sound of snack foods appearing to the remaining mind figures to be eaten as complementary enhancement to their viewing experience. Jeffery's momentum was carrying him towards another prism above, which were actually the mirror masked figures forming an attack formation above the solid prism below. The attackers somehow launched themselves above the prism as a unified blur giving off the illusion of a huge reflective prism. That is, to Jeffery's perspective because of no one below having enough range to view the same formation.

He deduced, "time to end this." Jeffery had ended up without realizing it launched himself towards the formation due to impulsively swinging around the formation creators during their launch. He ended up being propelled towards their falling trap formation targeted at the arena prism itself. Jeffery thought he had slowed down enough to have enough balance to kick the prism into pieces not a second sooner, but it was really from the approach angle that gave him that sensation of assumption. The eerie background vanished in an instant to his viewpoint. Jeffery had actually tumbled out of the formation through an unapparent bottom, destroying figures in the process. He shut his eyes from the bright glare of the prism's transformed adjoining light of colors below. An entire side of the replica like prism was shaken away from their collective grips on each other, plunging to mental oblivion from deadly heights against their intended target.

Shrieks as accelerated in mind time as the impulsive doomed figures they originated from echoed in an unheard pocket dimension of their own. Their bodies thinned out into disgusting mud puddles until they vanished from existence. From an unanticipated ripple of aftereffect, the rest of the mirror cloaked collective formation fell apart from lack of needed support to hold up the sides together. The figures within the collapsing prism shaped arrangement instinctively swung off from one another, fleeing in flight and retreat to regroup away from this mutated dreamscape. Just as quickly, the scene completely changed. Jeffery was transported by a mysterious figure's wormhole to a remaining section of his brain undisturbed. More specifically, this section was the origin of the collective wormhole disturbance that started the colorful mess encircling it and therefore had made enough gravitational forces to form its own pocket dimension of as sharp thought and dreaming as from within the prism arena.

A dream quarter of an hour before prism sneak attack(about mid morning of second day of physical aftermath)…

Alex smiled bittersweetly…"may the firmest intent win." A prism solidified out of the rivals' united emotions of tension and insight towards their close and yet distant intents. This is where the match that would give the symbolic figures enlightenment would ignite, whether Justin or Alex won for their warring alliances. The colors shot forward in response to the directors directing their forces telepathically to watch the fated point within the arena. Even the disrupted spectrum has cowered before the disruption of the mind invaders. Now only a victory within the souls of Identity and Community could determine their own fate. The arena was internally quite different than what it seemed to be capable of from outside. It too was a pocket dimension of dreams and minds, but one of a more sensitive nature. Alongside Alex and Justin were the familiar figures seen much earlier, and yet so shrouded in mystery until now.

A young woman with long dark brown hair and equally complex persona stood next to Justin's leader…"what's the deal, Carly? We were on our way to warn the Community…"

Their mutual leader had a singular ponytail stretching from the rest of her black hair to her dark clothed back…"I sense what you know Raven, but that could wait until these hormones are realigned."

A young man with a black mullet and a suit made of metal from his own cold resolve was sided with Alex…"realigned? It's you that realigns opinions to suit your own!"

A young adult with medium ash blond hair and firmer selflessness was positioned beside Justin..."well Marlow, I didn't know your kind had a common belief. Perhaps there's still hope to reunite in peace."

A young adult with red and slightly smaller hair standing with Alex impatiently glowed as bright as a flare at near launch…"drop the act, Ben! We know too well how your kind deals with changing views."

Justin interrupted, "come on, Sparky! Isn't the greatest desire among us all to live and enjoy life?"

Alex remarked, "and a far stronger one to enjoy as much willed life as we choose, no matter who tries to take that right away."

A young man having similar black hair and alert radiance was with Justin…"those who use rights beyond tolerance cannot be righteous."

Alex's leader was a young woman with blond highlights and dark brown hair accompanying her twisted persona…"Marvin, with that analogy, is that an admittance of guilt over being intolerant of others like yourselves?"

Raven debated, "then you should listen to your own advice, Alana."

Next to her was someone with long black hair in braid like build and tougher soul mixed in a desire for carefree living…"let's deliver their minds back to their soulless bodies to rethink their evaluation in solitude."

Carly commented in partial confirmation, "provided you still have souls of your own."

Alana chuckled devilishly…"a brilliant suggestion, Nia. Get them!" Quarterstaffs and gauntlets clanged fiercely among the maddened parties.

Roars of cheers and booing came from the onlookers outside, unaware of the incoming attackers going through the aisles and towards the arena itself. Justin's quarterstaff was willed to him, blocking Alex's gauntlets while shifting the staff towards her chest. Alex tripped him onto the rock floor with one foot before he could complete the move.

Justin's staff rolled to the ground as he rolled back onto his back with a groan. He grabbed one of Alex's arms in a bare missed punch, hurling her arm backwards with surprising speed towards her own head. Alex clinked the arm's gauntlet against her other gauntlet while willing the rock surface around Justin into quicker than normal quicksand. He willed his staff to extend as a fallen tree large enough to be anchored into the ground by its bulky roots, pulling up on its trunk to safety. Alex jump kicked Justin against the tree's thick roots in mid air, knocking the wind out of him. Alex landed on the trunk, walking up to Justin's coughing bruised mind to deliver the last blow. Justin willed an earthquake to split the trunk in desperation, sending both of them backwards. Alex kicked off part of the trunk in mid air, ramming it towards Justin. While Alex was in battle with Justin, combat was all around them.

Due to fully maintained memories and persona among the highest members of the Community and the Identity(not including Alex, Max, Gigi, or Justin), old and new rivalry was expected and pursued all at once. Nia and Marvin were in an ice covered scene, blocking themselves with her gauntlets and his quarterstaff at whirling speed. Marvin though was anticipating while Nia was zooming around him to try to get an opening. Marvin kicked down at the ice below, splitting it at Nia's direction. Nia couldn't stop her speed from dragging her towards the icy water below. She willed a tidal wave of the cold liquid back at Marvin, lifting some glaciers in the process. Nia grabbed hold of an iceberg out of instinct and swung with enough speed to kick off another. Marvin radar calculated a small enough window of opportunity to tumble onto the exact part of the ice that will be swept up by the wave. He expectedly put his hands against the rising ice and kicked off, tackling Nia in the process on top of a piece of ice. Nia swiftly swung her hair in Marvin's confused face, throwing his concentration long enough to quickly ram his chest off by the knees.

Marvin tumbled against a second glacier, struggling to get air with coughs as his staff sunk in water nearby. Nia leaped onto the landing pad, about to finish the fight. Marlow and Carly were combating in a cavern filled with bolted torches, stalagmites, and turning passages of carved stone. Marlow was nearly covered from head to toe with metal with the only exception being the head itself. Carly had formed armor from her own body to counteract him. Their gauntlets banged together as the rivals shifted around the mineral spikes, trying to knock each other against these stalagmites. Marlow transformed his arm into a metal tentacle that wrapped around Carly's mind body and hurled her against a smashed stalagmite. Carly transformed into a large metal plate that landed face up on what was left.

With a vicious laugh, Marlow hurled the reforming Carly down a corridor as though she was a toy. She transformed into a large cloud of gas, travelling at extreme speed backwards towards Marlow. Marlow clanked down the passage in misplaced anxiety. He gasped in horror as the torches around him went out from a subtle but significant breeze. The cloud's moisture attacked Marlow's body like flaming arrows melting his shelled hide to rust. He struggled to escape, but his joints were fusing into rock. Marlow willed himself a hole under the rock, sliding down a winding tunnel of earth with Carly in gas form overtaking his otherwise immovable legs.

Ben cried in pain at the searing heat of the flames. Bolts of flashes came like threatening spears, combusting into flares against the unnatural smoky colored sky. Treetops pierced through the sheet of darkness, their bulk branching out of what appeared as nothingness. Sparky was radiating with fire across his deadly yet thriving body, leaping from branch to branch after Ben. Ben spun around the raining lightning, kicking off a piece of burning bark in mid descent. Sparky whirled against the descending burning shard, riding it like a board in a push off against a relatively shorter set of branches. He kicked at Ben in mid landing. Ben whirled sideways and rammed his shoulder at Sparky. Sparky tumbled back to his feet, standing atop the edge of a thick branch.

He chuckled menacingly, hurling missile like fireballs at Ben. Ben thought a water hose to his person and sprayed it at the missiles. They turned into steam. Before Sparky could react, the aflame shard crashed into the branch he was on. Ben had the hint of a purely intuitive grin. The shard exploded on impact, splitting the branch in half.

Sparky growled, clinging to the falling branch. As the steam cleared, a bolt was willed to strike the center of the same tree. Ben jumped backwards, spinning around branch after branch. Flames spread down the splitting tree. Branch after branch broke off into the shallow void below. Sparky thought his branch as an old fashioned rope bridge, climbing onto it for partial safety. Ben swung off of the branches altogether, knocking Sparky against his bridge with a surprise kick. The breeze of the whirlwind swings put out the flare sitting on Ben's shoulder. The force of the collision and the escalated friction on the bridge sent Sparky straight through it. Ben willed a custom flameproof firefighter suit on, leaping towards Sparky descending towards the void. He took out his quarterstaff sticking out of his shirt, deflecting Sparky's gauntlets in a chorus of clinks and clangs.

Alana chuckled deviously as her gauntlets clashed with Raven's quarterstaff. They seemed to be standing on a storm of snowflakes as big as porches, whirling in a cyclone worth of a breeze. Blurs of ice cloaked their surroundings. Alana struck Raven in the face, sending her tumbling through an open space within a platform snowflake.

Raven quickly propped her staff across the space, catching herself with a sigh of relief. Alana morphed her physiology with her mood, physically strengthening her mind body with her rising anger. She kicked the flake into two, trapping Raven in the whirlwind beyond with the release of her staff. Alana grabbed onto one half of the divided platform for support. Raven screamed in frustration, thinking her voice as sonic blasts. The shockwaves shattered the snowflakes around the mind combatants into ice pellets, sending Alana towards Raven in the chaotic tide of the wind. They willed their ears temporarily muted to absorb the mind implications of the sonic blasts. The collection of ice shards gave off an impression of snow in the background. Alana's feeling of confusion gave her mind body enough speed to literary run between the shards. Raven used precognition alone to swing off of the shards after Alana.

Dream minutes during prism assault(physically 11:06 A.M. on third physical day after mental bang)…

Jeffery thought he had slowed down enough to have enough balance to kick the prism into pieces not a second sooner, but it was really from the approach angle that gave him that sensation of assumption. The eerie background vanished in an instant to his viewpoint. Jeffery had actually tumbled out of the formation through an unapparent bottom, destroying figures in the process. He shut his eyes from the bright glare of the prism's transformed adjoining light of colors below. An entire side of the replica like prism was shaken away from their collective grips on each other, plunging to mental oblivion from deadly heights against their intended target.

Shrieks as accelerated in mind time as the impulsive doomed figures they originated from echoed in an unheard pocket dimension of their own. Well, the audience surrounding the real prism took no notice to the screams. However, the contestants in the prism had a different story. While the invaders' bodies vanished from existence, their cries shattered the prism to pieces. The crowd outside gasped in panic, wondering in fear what would happen next. The sonic wave had the contestants disregard their battlefield and awaken most of the mind populace's attention. From an unanticipated ripple of aftereffect, the rest of the mirror cloaked collective formation fell apart from lack of needed support to hold up the sides together. The figures within the collapsing prism shaped arrangement instinctively swung off from one another, fleeing in flight and retreat to regroup away from this mutated dreamscape. The Identity and Community began to evacuate in equal confusion and panic:

"Run!"

"Come on!"

"This way!"

"What the…?(!)" It seemed to be a massive retreat, with the sole exceptions of two individuals. Gigi apparently was tailing Jeffery, not even noticing the evacuation.

She deduced manipulatively, "he'd make a great addition to the Identity. Maybe if I give him a push…" Jeffery was transported by Gigi's wormhole to the remaining section of his undisturbed brain that was the massive wormhole disturbance's center.

Soon after, in Jeffery's imagination landscape…

Out of the pillars came a swirling rainbow of colors that lit the mosaic room into bright light. Jeffery shut his eyes against the flare…only to open them with shining glare emitting under his feet. He got up in frustration to see a stranger setting. He called out, "who are you?(!)" The characters from the mural cage were standing next to him in one second. One was actually Gigi taking on the form of one of the mosaic characters, starting to advance towards Jeffery. In the next second though, the colors blurred to the point of intermixing. Alana and Carly had teleported into the prior undisturbed dream dimension of Jeffery's brain for their own reasons.

Alana insisted in worry, "you can find more fighters later Gigi, but right now we need to reform our plans before we lose more." She took a confused Gigi back to the Identity through her portal. Carly though quietly dropped Justin off to secretly evaluate Jeffery due to having a sense that the invaders had fled themselves. This was unknown to Alana. Jeffery was near speechless at seeing a mirror version of himself, created from color fusion. The remaining leftover colors just spun around the 2 as though they were in a blender of paint without meaning or repercussion.

The mirror Jeffery retorted to Jeffery's question, "what you'll become."

Jeffery commented, "but the only thing I know is the word Jeffery. Is it my name then?"

The second Jeffery chuckled…"you catch on quick."

At the end of Jeffery's double persona exam…

Jeffery smiled in inner acknowledgment. He then saw a green flash go off like a homing beacon from the rotating walls of multiple colors. Justin suddenly materialized from the flash before Jeffery's eyes.

Justin greeted, "hello."

Jeffery questioned, "what are you?"

Justin assured, "I'm a human like you…with some mental help."

Jeffery wondered, "are we all caged in our own thoughts?"

Justin figured, "that's one way to put it."

Jeffery offered, "how about we unlock the barrier to reality?"

Justin insisted slightly amused, "one step at a time, umm..."

Jeffery filled in the blank, "Jeffery."

The recruiter responded, "I'm Justin, a member of the Community."

Jeffery checked in confusion, "you sure there's only one?"

Justin begun retaliating, "in here, desires sprout stronger drive to the point of abusive addiction in most people…"

Jeffery finished, "and so few goals or cultures in between."

Justin replied, "indeed, and that's why the Community needs all the help they can get with a terroristic alliance called the Identity."

Jeffery assured, "you have my full support."

Justin mysteriously deduced, "more than you know." Another green flash formed under their feet, taking the hopefuls beyond Jeffery's restrictive body and towards their next destination.


	6. Part 6: Mindset Destiny

**Masterminds: A Waverly Place Fanfic**

**Part 6:**

"What are we even talking…about?"

"Oh, Alex! Don't tell me you…You are so in trouble this time! I wouldn't be too surprised if you were sent to boot camp after we clear all this up." Alex's tears resurfaced in sorrow.

"Alex, I'm deeply…If only…communicated…your mind…" Alex retracted her hand in drowning rationality and started pulling out her wand.

"This is the only time I've gotten a secure future, and I'm not going to let either of you ruin it!" An explosion sounded from a front door of the hotel. The three Russo siblings got up and looked backwards in horror. The Aim's revolving door had been ripped off its hinges. A pair of unrecognizable beasts of machinery and human hybrids was charging at the Russo siblings with unnatural strength and swiftness. One was orange-red colored with tubes of black. The other was yellow-blue colored with tubes of brown. The red cyborg launched fireballs from his hands.

"Get out!"

"While you still can." The food court plunged into flames. Smoke rose from the many food stalls that started to form a dome like wall of heat. More explosions went off as the workers dove for cover...including Jerry and Theresa Russo.

People ran and screamed for the nearest emergency exits across the lobby…leaving the Russo siblings in isolation. Alex ran for the way out, a trail of tears trailing behind her feet.

"Alex!" Justin awoke startled.

A warm voice checked, "you all right?" Over a jewel framed bed stood the figure of Maddie Fitzpatrick, but with sparkling ruby bracelets and bright silk wrapped around her central body tighter than a bath towel. Justin was lying down on the bed, trying to adjust his eyes to his surroundings.

Justin nervously responded, "ye…yeah, but who are you?"

The figure insisted, "you go first." She inched closer towards the bed.

Justin revealed in a daze, "I'm…Justin. At least, I think I am." The other figure noticed something distorting in shock.

She deduced in worry, "your image…is blurring!" Justin moved an arm with difficulty towards his vision, confirming the suspicion.

Justin suggested between coughs, "is…it…something in the air?"

The figurative princess assured bitterly, "but…it got fresher."

Justin began having a coughing fit. The princess tried to push down on his mind heart to get the thoughts running smoother, when she felt an invisible body in the way. The being attempted to absorb her fingers, but the princess kicked off of the creature.

The monster cried in pain, retreating from Justin's drained body. The princess whirled her hands around in reaction, trying to find a support to even out the momentum. She swung off of a second energy drainer and onto the floor with partial relief.

Justin responded with a sigh, "thanks, miss…" The second drainer spun a limb at the only window in the room, where the princess used to be a dream second ago.

The princess inputted, "Ivana. Get us out of here!" The window smashed apart, giving into a spread of blinding light. Justin and the princess shut their eyes on impulse.

Shrieks of the duo of evaporating invaders pierced the peace. A wormhole took Ivana and Justin out of range in time, before both could be destroyed along with the mind disrupters. On the other side of the colored glass window was a second lookalike of Maddie, but with much duller clothes made up of torn shreds barely cloaking her person. There was a small metal room making up the lookalike's surroundings. Pillars made up the walls and only a locked door was the way out. The door had exploded in response to the shaken window as if the two were actually merged as one item.

A cold voice called out, "evaporate this!" Max thought a lightning bolt into existence, zapping through the opposite room. Apparently, his mind body still had the power of dream manipulation…with or without being in his brain as long as it was intact.

The nearby lookalike Maddie exclaimed, "what's going on?"

Max insisted, "don't worry Marilyn…I'm the life guard." The energy overloaded the nearby disrupters out of existence.

Marilyn shot back, "more like needing supervision." Justin used the distraction to make a wormhole in time. Max made his own wormhole at the same time, transporting a reluctant Marilyn with him. Much more mind stalkers were beginning to chase after the foursome, like hunters on their trail with self generating wormholes. Corridors were forming and all at once shrinking around the mind victims. Wormholes intermixed with intersecting disruptions. Max tried to blast another thought consumer, but nothing happened.

He exclaimed, "bunk!"

Marilyn concluded, "only physical actions can happen between brains?" The linked mindset group ran through corridor after corridor to try to slip past the nightmare cave in. Since the wormhole paths were merely the path a traveler intends to take forward in mentality, intersecting paths sped up deterioration behind travelers because travelers did not want to crash into each other.

Justin wondered in amazement, "how did you…?(!)"

Marilyn deduced, "too much time to myself of outweighing which possibility is the best fitting."

Ivana urged, "how about concentrating on the possibilities of getting us out of here alive?(!)"

Max deduced, "it already has been calculated." He punched an incoming drainer in the chest from around the corner out of impulse, knocking the surprised monster into the deterioration of its own wormhole. The drainer kept going past the spatial decay, launching itself by its own wormhole out of range.

The creature shrieked out of frustration, struggling to get up and return to the spatial network. In the same network, these thought absorbers seemed to be more clear and yet still transparent bodies by enough adjoining disruptions to bend enough light upon them to give them an outline. The shapes were humanoid, but no other features seemed to be noticeable.

Marilyn realized in partial amusement, "there is a plan to this?" Ivana grabbed both edges of another intersection, kicking upward with heightened momentum. A second drainer catapulted out of the disruption ceiling, distorting the intersection.

Justin called out, "this way!" He led the two Maddies and Max in a leap across the deterioration in front of them, tumbling into another corridor. Justin had harder trouble of getting up to the degree that Marilyn had to help him up. All four kept running from the drainers nearly overtaking them, turning into another corridor. Justin concluded between deep breaths, "must be…the small…overdose…of hormone…rations…going into…partial withdrawal." Mind assaulters seemed to surround them from everywhere, closing in for their finale on the foursome. Then, all gravity broke loose. Countless wormholes struck the same intersection, transforming the corridors into an anti-gravity bubble shaped chamber. Ivana and Max used the sudden advantage to hurl the assaulters against each other, their features seeming much more normal due to intensely bent light. Many mind bodies came all around the drainers as the drainers too grew in numbers.

Carly commented, "good coordination."

Alana suggested, "we'll hold them off." The Identity members fought off the drainers while the Community members begun a different kind of formation.

Alex remarked, "just don't let them hold you!" She kicked to the sides with both legs, knocking some mind monsters backwards. Ivana spun off one absorber in reflex, knocking into Marilyn by accident.

The two beings suddenly glowed in intensity, gasping as their bodies seemed to merge closer on their own accord. The two personas became one, giving off the appearance of a steel plated warrior without a helmet. Maddie sighed with relief, "that's better." She rammed her heels against mind absorbers, kicking off the monsters with enough force to send them across the bubble. Jeffery had the appearance of a robed monk, delivering mind blowing punches and elbows left and right to absorbers.

Marlow remarked, "it'd be better if we reprogrammed the monsters' brains following dream wide mind hole device distribution."

Ben retaliated, "and let them claim our brains and take our minds with them?(!)"

Alex encouraged, "these two seem to be an army from their own arms alone. Identity forces, fall back!" The Identity members drew backwards, towards a circle formation of arms forming from the Community members. Justin and Max joined the chain of clasped hands.

Max insisted, "hurry!" Jeffery and Maddie cleared the way for the mind populace with their non-lethal blows against the potentially lethal thought stealers. Gigi and Alex held hands in the midst of the spiraling string of minds, all unified in thought. Colors exploded in swirls across the winding twist of connected minds. Echoes of words of the past blended in chaotic chatter. The dream disrupters instinctively banded together in a circle, holding onto each other for protection.

Gigi shouted, "keep it together!"

Jeffery encouraged, "get a grip!" Maddie and Jeffery clung onto the first limbs they felt, which were the frightened dream disrupters. Whether they knew or not was never truly known. Raven and Sparky linked their hands in Maddie's and Jeffery's. The mind bodies had to close their eyes to take in the brightening colors without losing vision. The blurs of perception and audibility radiating from the unified mindset of preservation expanded as branching wormhole corridors. The corridors closed in on the dormant brains of humankind, thinning out into thought carrier beams. Multiple neuron electrons lit up in nervous restart and anticipative reaction.

Back at the physical realm…

Executive Miranda and Agent Harper started to open their eyes in confusion back at Miranda's shady office. They were both sitting on a repositioned visitor couch with a video projector aimed at the opposite wall's now clear blue projection screen. Harper wondered in a temporary daze, "how…long were…?" She was rubbing her eyes as if it might've been a nightmare. Miranda checked her antique wristwatch with an unsettling startle.

The Assistant Director revealed in mutual disturbance, "five days." Agent Harper turned to her partner with puzzling vex.

She examined for confirmation in confusion, "are you serious?(!)"

Miranda insisted ironically, "I never kid." She noticed other operatives with multiform relief starting to come to consciousness. The National Security Branch got enough acceleration back in their nervous system for their wireless helmets to reawaken their own network, retracting their mind avatars back to their brains. The thought monsters' avatars underwent the same fate right beforehand. Their monstrous adrenaline brought the rest of their bodies to speed, raising them to consciousness in dream minutes. However, they were around a half hour ahead of the security branch…setting the stage for a secret war of monsters.

Within the mind knot of anchored disruption…

The broken chain from an aftereffect of the discharged avatars spun out of alignment, wrapping around itself. A balled up mass of mind bodies had so many crisscrossed limbs formed from preservative impulse that they anchored themselves into each other. They'd only harm each other if they tried to activate wormholes to spring free.

All they could do was wait and hope in sighs, coughs, groans, and deep thought.

At Wiz World reboot time…

Harper concluded in outward thinking and mounting distress, "the wizard world won't repair itself before the monsters get here at this rate. Now what do I do?(!)" The walls and floor of the Taylors' lair were rebuilding themselves while a large task force of monster bipedal giants was halfway across the desert landscape that'd lead to the hole in time. Harper decided with a depressing sigh. She figured, "even if these pocket worlds are sensitive to the lack of active wizard dimension crafters in the present to escape deeply rooted misguidance sprouting from Wizard Wars, this is all I got." Harper took off both of her ear pin bombs and hurled them at the rim of the opening to numerous uncivil millenniums itself in last minute desperation. She ran for the only direct way out as the countless motionless bodies were hurled into combustion oblivion by a grand tidal wave worth of blue wizard energy. The portal begun to freeze shut with the doubled cryogenic bombs.

Within the thought knot…

The mind bodies suddenly were struck by a huge blue lightning bolt that pierced open their disruption pocket. It was composed of blue wizard energy, beginning to repair the shockwaves of the wizard spell that started the near uncontrollable chaos on both realms of reality. The mind bodies glowed with unnaturally charged blue skin, morphing into a liquid like mass of thought in unconsciousness.

Within the Wiz World…

Harper kept running, flipping, and tumbling past lightning tentacle formation that tried to scoop her up with the vanished monsters. The interior of the portal turned into a giant glacial shard. The charging monsters crashed into the frozen mass, only to fall victim to more blue electricity.

The experimental monsters on the opposite side covered their eyes on reflex in moans from the bright flash of vaporization. Harper tumbled straight through the doorway back to civilization just as the edge of the portal was welded shut by kinetic chain lightning that had a mind of its own. It was as if the wizard world had so much input from constructive wizards that it had developed its own output for neutralizing its lethal viruses. The doorway sealed up behind Harper. This wizard world potential security system was going as far as mending the homes that were built around each wizard lair. Harper was amazed in speechless shock at the chain lightning that was following beyond the closet door lock.

She deduced open eyed, "it's repairing everything. Oh my gosh!" Due to the chain lightning being so widespread across the nation with numerous wizard lairs and their looking glass portals on the other side of the lock, it was mending every monster related impact. This included monster hybrid battlefields seemingly beyond repair, monster gangs affected by the previous reality shift reverting back to their normal roles in society in unconsciousness as an aftereffect of the cosmic lightning, and dead members both monsters and wizards alike getting resurrected from time undoing its own monstrous knot. Even Miranda was hit by the lightning with a disappearing set of injuries in unconsciousness to Harper's turned attention in shock and restored cheerfulness.

Among the mindset shards…

Thought beams still clung to the remaining mind bodies, reeling them back towards their brains. The blue energy crackling around them discharged straight through the beacons, illuminating their home brains' neuron electrons like slowly recharging power grids. Monster brains' thought carrier waves reversed themselves, crashing together where the spatial pocket used to be. Flares of color and echo spread over humanity, granting partial brain metabolism across the world. The mind avatars landed back in their regenerating bodies. The mind flares were enough to bring the majority of humanity into normal slumber condition. It wouldn't be long before the monster hybrids followed after the rest of sentient life awoke. Their mutated adrenaline was back in their bodily regulation regeneration phase…due to revive the monster hybrids in dream minutes.

Two physical days prior to mass sleep normalization…

Harper summarized in more fulfilling relief, "so the Russos' involuntary disappearance in the first reality shift as indicated by the collective side effect affected overlapping worlds truly reveals which memories were supposed to be intact in the first place." Harper put a hand on fallen Miranda's chest to check her heart beat in a hint of worry. She sighed with greater relief. Harper deduced with satisfaction in observation of the setting sun through a glass window, "a brand new day of hope." Harper smiled at the face of her most trusted friend Miranda, knowing there'd still be no rivalry between them after this. She thought, "we'll just erase our memories from everyone else outside of the spy business. It happens all the time with secret services." She also realized that the hijacked bus was gone, but she didn't care. If it took five days for the FBI security force and the monsters to wake up, there's no telling how much longer for sure the rest of life as we know it would take to awaken. Harper assumed, "we'll have all the time in the world."

**The End...Or Is It A Matter Of Opinion?**

**Please Feel Free To Comment  
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